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Origin and history

The monument to Commander Guilbaud, erected in his native village of Mouchamps (Vendée) in the early 1930s, pays tribute to René Cyprien Guilbaud (1890–1928), naval officer and aviation pioneer. Disappeared at the Barents sea during a rescue mission to the Italian airship, he was promoted to a frigate captain posthumously. This monument, made by sculptors Jan and Joël Martel, consists of a statue in uniform framed with bas-reliefs evoking its birth and tragic epic.

René Guilbaud, son of a pharmacist from Mouchamps, joined the Naval School of Brest in 1909. After a career marked by aerial exploits (raid France-Madagascar in 1926 and distinctions (Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur in 1922), he died alongside Roald Amundsen during a rescue expedition. His seaplane, the Latham 47, was never found, but debris attested to the shipwreck. The monument, classified in 2013, symbolizes both local heroism and the bold beginnings of maritime aviation.

Inaugurated in 1930, this memorial is part of a series of national tributes (rues in Paris, La Rochelle, Brest) celebrating Guilbaud as a figure of scientific and military daring. The carved allegories – his home and seaplane over the ocean – highlight the contrast between his vendean origins and his Arctic end. A communal property, the monument remains a place of memory for inhabitants and enthusiasts of aeronautical history.

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